"The Truman Show" by Peter Weir: a review

The Truman Show is all about Truman Burbank and is like a show within a show. Truman’s every move is being captured on camera and he is the only person that doesn’t know this. It takes some time however, slowly but surely, as the events around him begin to unfold, he does eventually realize this.

On his way to work one morning, he notices strange objects falling from the sky. On the radio he hears news of an aircraft that had some parts that fell off and so he assumes that was what it was. At work, Truman seeks information on Fiji as he wants to go there and some woman named Lauren or Silvia Garland. He is asked by his boss to go to Harbor Island to close a deal on a job but when he gets to the pier he is unable to go any further due to his fear of water. He goes home and arranges to meet his childhood friend, Marlon and reveals to him that he’d like to go to Fiji but Marlon pretends to not know where that is. Truman goes to the beach and recalls the tragic storm that killed his father, hence his fear of water. Strangely it then starts to rain, but it only rains on Truman.

Truman goes home and tells his wife Meryl about his plans to go to Fiji but she dismisses them and suggests that they should try for a baby but Truman is not interested in starting a family. The next day on the way to work, Truman happens across a vagrant who resembles his father, but then the vagrant appears to be taken away by a number of people and objects that have just appeared out of nowhere. That evening, Truman goes down to the basement and happens across a red sweater and the image we see dissolves into a flashback of when Truman and Marlon were at college. Truman is eyeing up a woman across the yard but gets interrupted when Meryl approaches. Meryl constantly hangs around Truman but one evening when he is alone in the library, he gets to speak to the woman he has been admiring. The pair gets interrupted by a man claiming to be Silvia’s father as he orders her into the car before she gets the chance to tell him the truth about the show. Truman snaps out of his memory and collects all the pictures of women’s faces to try and create a picture of what Silvia really looks like even when she was discussing a possible infertility option.

On his way to work the next day, Truman listens to the radio and he realizes that his every movement is being broadcasted. Considering this is weird, Truman tells Marlon that he is going to go a way for a while when his friend did not take him seriously about what had just happened. Back home, Truman’s mother and Meryl show him some pictures and one in particular catches Truman’s attention: it is their wedding photo and Meryl has her fingers crossed which could indicate that she did not take her marriage vows seriously. The next day Truman decides to leave for Fiji but there aren’t any flights available for a month and the bus breaks down. He decides to return home and sees the familiar traffic jam that appears when he tries to leave the town. However, when he pretends to return home, the traffic jam disappears so he makes his way to the bridge. Unable to drive across it, he makes Meryl take the wheel. They get stopped outside a power plant and Truman gets out of the car but is soon returned home. Marlon drops by and Truman voices his concern over some sort of scheme that’s going on but he dismisses it as he is searching the validity behind the green screen equipment all around him. He tells Truman that he found the vagrant and it actually is Truman’s father and they are reunited. The creator of the Truman show, Christof, organized the reunion. Truman falls asleep in his basement but it is revealed that he has dug a hole and escaped and a search party ensues. Christof cuts the transmission and Truman is found sailing away on a boat.